Short Takes

August 11, 2005|By -- LARRY WILLIAMS

Movies

Wishing Stairs (Tartan, 2003) -- In Korea, this is ``Whispering Corridors 3,'' a sequel to the 1998 girls'-school ghost story recently released in the United States. This is the best of the trio, delivering some nice shudders and a load of atmospheric creepiness. A student makes a wish that she, not her more talented friend, will win a ballet scholarship to a prestigious dance school. When her friend is fatally injured in a fall, her wish comes true, except that her friend wants them to be together, always. R. In Korean with subtitles.

Lightning Bug (Anchor Bay, 2005) -- Robert Hall based Green, lead character in this coming-of-age story, on his teen years, when he was making his own monster masks, with an eye on a career in Hollywood. He got there, doing makeup and creatures on hit TV shows such as ``The X-Files'' and ``Buffy the Vampire Slayer.'' His casting call attracted a lot of people from youth-oriented TV shows, and the movie itself would be right at home on The WB. Green lives in a rundown trailer with his brittle, alcoholic mother and his sadistic stepfather. You know early on that Green's skills, benign though they seem, will help him get rid of the stepfather. Meanwhile, there's Green's girlfriend, her religious-nut mother and other distractions. Not rated.

Memories of Murder (Palm, 2003) -- This just played theatrically in New York, where it received rave reviews. So I was eager to see it, and I was disappointed. Three detectives -- one smart, one not too smart and one cruel and violent -- are investigating a series of murders of young women. Most of the first hour concerns the fruitless efforts of the two inept cops to beat confessions out of innocent people. That gets tiresome. The second hour shifts to actual detective work, and it's much better. There's a sad, ironic twist near the end, as the smart cop can't cope with failure. And the whole thing ends realistically, perhaps too much so for some viewers. Not rated. In Korean with subtitles, or dubbed in English.

Reissues

Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (Fox, 1964) -- This is a near masterpiece of psychological horror that's largely forgotten despite the huge success of its original release. Bette Davis stars as the tormented recluse Charlotte, a role she played so brilliantly that it redefined her image for a generation unfamiliar with her earlier career as a Hollywood diva. Also featured are Joseph Cotten, as a doctor so evil, he makes Cotten's serial killer in ``Shadow of a Doubt'' seem kind, and Olivia de Havilland as Charlotte's conniving cousin Miriam, whose early kindness toward Charlotte is transparently false. The film opens with a flashback to 1927, as the camera roams a Louisiana plantation, showing us that someone rich and powerful must live here. As the camera nears an open window, we hear the thundering voice of Charlotte's father (a scary Victor Buono) threatening a youthful Bruce Dern, the married man who is having an affair with his teenage daughter. A cringing Dern agrees to call it off that night. Unfortunately for him, someone left a meat cleaver unattended in the kitchen. Not rated.